Judge won’t reinstate fired Ohio election officers

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday denied a request to reinstate two Democratic officials who were fired by Ohio’s Republican secretary of state from a county elections board.

U.S. District Judge Walter Rice said in the ruling that among other issues, the ex-members failed to identify that a fundamental right had been violated by their removal and that they would suffer irreparable harm if they weren’t reinstated.

Rice’s decision came after a flurry of filings by Secretary of State Jon Husted and the fired members of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, Dennis Lieberman and Thomas Ritchie Sr.

Husted has accused Lieberman and Ritchie of “knowingly and willingly violating Ohio elections laws” by voting for weekend voting hours after he had ordered all the state’s 88 counties in August to have the same voting hours on weekdays.

While his directive didn’t specifically mention Saturdays and Sundays, it did not list any weekend hours.

In the directive, Husted wrote that the state had a “patchwork of policies” among the counties, and he wanted to create uniform hours so the presidential election was “accessible for all, fair, and secure.”

In their court filings, the Democrats said they voted for weekend voting hours anyway to make the process as open as possible for all voters, particularly those who can’t make it to the polls during weekday business hours.

“If there is an overriding policy concern that should be placed on the scale, it should be a policy of enfranchisement, not disenfranchisement, as the right to vote is fundamental and preservative of all other rights,” the Democrats wrote in an Oct. 17 filing.

The Democrats argued that minorities use weekend voting hours in statistically greater numbers and that limiting such hours would violate the Constitution. They had also contended that the county needed their roughly 28 years of combined experience to ensure a smooth, well-run election.

Husted fired the board members in late August and appointed their replacements on Sept. 11.

Montgomery County, which is home to Dayton, had been among the counties that had established early voting hours before Husted’s directive.

The former board members’ lawsuit is among a series of disputes centering on early voting in the presidential battleground state. The issue has essentially broken down along political party lines, with Democrats favoring longer hours and Republicans opposed.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week rejected Husted’s appeal of a lower court’s decision reinstating in-person early voting in the three days before Election Day.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by President Barack Obama’s campaign and Democrats over changes in state law that took away the three days of voting for most people but made exceptions for military personnel and Ohioans living overseas.

Husted has since set uniform hours on the weekend and Monday before Tuesday’s election.